Education Week staff writer Evie Blad explores some of the nonacademic issues that bear on students’ learning. Join her for insights, news, and analysis on a wide range of issues including school climate, student engagement, children’s well-being, and student behavior and discipline.

Such questions "may have a discriminatory effect on black and other minority applicants because of the racially disparate treatment that permeates the criminal justice system and the use of exclusionary discipline tactics in schools," the group said in a statement.

"No student should be denied a fair chance to compete for a seat in the classroom based on a high school suspension or contact with the criminal justice system," Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in that statement. "The Common Application should take immediate action to strike these discriminatory inquiries from its standardized forms, to help schools across our nation provide a fair chance to all people seeking access to educational opportunity."

Some higher education officials are resistant to removing such questions from applications.

"When we're doing a holistic review, we're really shaping a community," Todd Rinehart, the chairman of the admissions practices committee of the National Association for College Admission Counseling told Education Week. "We should have every bit of information that's possible."

What do you think? Should colleges ask about students' disciplinary and criminal records?

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